I haven’t been knitting as much as I’d like to (or as much as I promised myself way back at the beginning of the year), but throw in a few dreary, blustery days, and suddenly all I want to do is knit and drink tea.

I unearthed a random skein of yarn and cast on for some socks so I could knit a bit while watching TV. My youngest by a technicality (C is the younger twin, born 4 whole minutes after his sister) seemed to take a longer-than-usual glance at them, but then he became absorbed in something else. I didn’t think much of it.

The next morning at breakfast, C said, “You know, I don’t have a pair of socks.”

“Seriously?” I was a little flummoxed. “Because, man, I just did laundry….”

“Not those socks, Mom. The good ones.”

I must have looked completely bewildered (and please understand it was also ridiculously early and I hadn’t had even 3 sips of coffee yet), because he clarified. “You know, the ones you make.”

I was starting to catch on. “So you want me to knit you a pair of socks?”

“Yeah. Everyone else has some, but I don’t.”

Had I really not knit him socks? I swore I had, but he said not. I checked his drawer — no socks. I questioned him, his sister and his older brother — nope, no socks. How was this possible?

I tried to remember what I’d made him — countless hats, sweaters, a Harry Potter scarf in all its 6-foot Gryffindor glory. But I couldn’t pin down when I might have made him socks. Oops.

Then as the tidal wave of Mom Guilt came rolling in, I tried to outrun it by dumping my sock yarn stash out and letting him choose whatever he wanted. His selection process was based on three simple criteria: plain (i.e., no stripes or variegated colors), bright, and here.

His choice: bright green

I’ve been knitting as fast as I can, but…. Wait. Did you feel that? That was me getting my feet swept out from under me by the Guilt.

In my defense, I’m fairly sure that I stuck to knitting hats and scarves and sweaters for him because I knew that he’d outgrow socks in mere minutes. And he prefers to run around this cold house in the cold weather — you guessed it — barefoot.

Besides, the boy has enormous feet. Seriously.

My hand, his foot. Crazy.

But he wants a pair of socks made for him by me. What knitter could refuse such a request?

This kid totally has my number.

Have you felt the Mom-Guilt Wave recently? And for any knitters/crafters trying to crank out some handmade holiday presents — how’s it going for you?

6 Responses to Sin of omission

I’m falling behind. But I’ve eliminated some stuff from my list, so maybe it’ll work out.

And yes, Mom Guilt Wave. My daughter came with me to the yarn store for knit night. I grabbed a skein of limited edition, specially dyed for this store yarn – a single skein (of only 50 that will ever be made) of sock yarn. Later, my daughter asked me if I would make her fingerless gloves for Christmas, and I said maybe. Then she sees the special skein of yarn as I’m paying for it and squeals “THIS! It’s perfect! Can you make the gloves out of this?” what a predicament…